Plastic parts are commonly manufactured for a variety of industries through blow-molding, injection molding, and other operations. These parts, as well as parts formed of other materials, commonly need to be trimmed or deflashed in order to remove excess material and provide a proper finish. Traditionally, the trimming or deflashing of these parts was performed manually. A variety of automated trimming and deflashing processes and devices are also available for improved throughput, reduced labor costs, and increased reliability and finish quality. Many of these devices include compliance tools that are coupled to a controllable positioning arm, compensate for part-to-part variation, and can be used with a wide variety of cutters for contoured or straight edge trimming and other operations. However, available compliance devices still suffer from a variety of drawbacks including undue complexity that make many of these devices expensive to manufacture and difficult to service. While these complex designs may be appropriate for certain applications, a simple and less expensive design is generally appropriate for other applications such as the trimming of workpieces having linear and/or relatively large radius curves. Accordingly, a need exists for a compliance tool for the robotic flash removal and trimming of parts, including blow-molded and injection molded plastic parts.